Camp!

 Boo had an amazing July full of camp! The first week is teen camp. We all prayed for them in the parking lot before they left. 

 

  

 

It was also R's birthday the day they left. 

 

 

Boo was a cabin leader for the first time and she came back with an amazing redemption story about these two girls in her cabin who were cousins and did NOT want to be at camp. She said they were swearing and angry and wanted nothing more than to go home. Pastor J said they were really aggressive and he and the camp director and several other adults had to get involved, but that Boo handled it beautifully. One of the girls' mom has just been sentenced to seven years in jail the day before the girl came to camp and they both had really rough home lives. 

 

The amazing part is that after a really tough couple of days with them BOTH girls came to Christ! Boo said it was like watching a switch get flipped and they went from angry and combative to peaceful, joyful, and asking how they can get involved in the discipleship program so that they can work at camp too! At church on Sunday Boo was able to tell the whole congregation about it during mission minute and it was so encouraging for everyone to hear their impactful story. I am so happy that are now part of the family of God and I'm so happy that Boo got to witness and be a part of such a turnaround redemption story! So neat to see how God worked it all out! 

 

 

 

Because of all that and how beautifully Boo handled the situation she also got Cabin Leader of the Week which is a big camp honor! Pastor J sent me this picture of her that he got when she received the award. 

 

I was going to have Boo take 11/12 week off but the girl that she spent all AWANA year with was going and it was her first time so Boo really wanted to be there for her. Boo got to cabin lead a second time that week. She really enjoyed it but said it is a whole different kind of draining. She said being a cabin leader requires a whole lot of mental energy whereas being a Timothy (grunt work) is physically draining. 

 

The third and fourth week she got to be a Timothy and was right across the path from Peaches' cabin during 9/10 week. Lou and I took Peaches and one of her friends up to camp on Monday and helped Peaches get settled in to her bunk. 

 

 

It ended up being a cabin with 7 of the 8 campers being all her good friends! I was a little worried that they would argue like sisters since they know each other so well (and since she said last year's cabin full of girls argued the whole time) but she said they had a wonderful week and didn't fight a single bit!  

 

 

Here she is wearing the camp shirt for this year. She was much less nervous about staying this year although I did get about a dozen hugs before I left. :) 

 

 

We brought Boo and R Sonic drinks and stopped by to see them working. 

 

 

One last picture before we headed out! 

 

 

Someone got this one of Boo during the week. I'm not sure where Peaches was. 

 

 

We went back up on Friday to pick Peaches up and she was full of energy and stories to tell! I grabbed a picture of her with her cabin leader E. I'm so thankful she had such a wonderful time! 

 

 

 

We brought Boo and R another drink since it's the only time we come up to camp for the season. These two have so much fun together! 

 

Boo finished up her camp season with a week with the 7/8 year olds. Unfortunately she got stung by a yellow jacket on Tuesday and ended up coming home on Thursday. The younger kids get one less day and then the staff gets one more night for R&R...no not rest and relaxation because they actually end up staying up most of, if not all of, the night. :P I think it stands for reflection and...something else, but Boo wasn't able to stay for it this year. She came home with Pastor S and the 7/8 campers and I took her to the doctor for her foot. He just prescribed some over the counter medicines and rest/ice and it slowly got better. She hobbled around for a few days afterwards. You can see how swollen and red her ankle was.

 

 

 

It was also really bruised where it stung her. :( 

 

One of her friends sent her this sweet picture of her and R with their camp bestie, J. So cute!

  

 

Other than the wasp sting she had an amazing camp season and we are SOOO proud of her for how hard she worked to further God's Kingdom here on Earth this summer! Way to go Boo!!! We love you!!! 

Texas! - Part 2

 The girls narrated these pictures for me. Peanut said, "I got sunburned because I lost my sunscreen under the bed all week. I found it when we were packing up to leave." :P

 They went on the rocks several times. It sounds like they got some scraped elbows and knees, but had a fun time! 

 

 

Traditional saddle picture! 

 

 

They said, "We played card games almost every day and got Sonic every day."  

 

 

"The boys were taking people's dishes to the garbage for them and someone gave them a water bottle full of about a dozen frogs so we are putting frogs into another container."

 

"We went to church every night except for the one day we went to the observatory. We went to look at the stars but it was cloudy so we couldn't see anything. We saw one star and it was a red dot. We did watch a power point presentation about the stars."

 

 

"It was really rainy and the thunder flashed right beside the tabernacle and it was so loud that people were screaming."  

 

 

"We got to swimming and went off the diving board a bunch of times. There were some fish around us but we didn't get nibbled on. S almost stepped on a catfish. Little J was too scared to jump off the diving board so we all went and did something else but then he jumped off and only his dad saw it. It smelled really bad like goose poop." Haha.

"Mama told us stories one night about how she first came to camp. She said that one year she had all three of the girls by herself and Noni was only 2."  

 

 

"We had walkie talkies all week so we could talk to each other. It was really fun."  

 

 

 "We played in the dodgeball tournament with cousin M and S and Uncle and another little boy and his dad. We only played two games and we lost them both."

 

 

 

"But Aunt J bought us snocones."

 

 

 

"We drove out to the Indian mounds but we couldn't find a path to get all the way down there so we just drove by a couple times." 

 

 

"Another time climbing up the rocks." 

 

 

"We went for walks every night, and drives during the day." 

 

 

Peanut said, "We slept really good and I hated getting up so early. We had a great week!" S is used to getting up early as the daughter of farmer. :)

 

 

S said, "This is Peanut being bored in the car...gas was really cheap though!"  

 

 

"There was a pool at the hotel where we stayed the night before we had to go to the airport. We had to get up 1:30AM our time to get to the airport, but I (Peanut) slept on the plane. S stayed awake and watched the Greatest Showman." 

 

 

They had an amazing trip!! Thank you Noni for giving them this experience! They loved it!!! 

Texas! - Part 1

Early this Spring Noni and her Sunday School girls were talking about camp and Peanut was telling them about our family camp in Texas. All the girls thought it sounded amazing and wanted to go so Noni actually ended up inviting them to go with her this summer! When all was said and done only one family decided to let their daughter to go, but Peanut was SO excited that she got to go on a big trip with one of her best friends! 

 She was counting down the months, then the weeks, then the days until it finally arrived! We took Peanut to Noni's the night before because they had a 6:30AM flight. Noni sent lots of pictures throughout the week so we got to be a part of all the fun!  

 

 

Peanut loves flying! 

 

 

They had a three hour layover in Las Vegas. 

 

 

I asked them if anything interesting happened on the flights and they said that Peanut's water bottle exploded on pretty much every one, haha.

 

 

Aunt Karen picked up once they finally landed in Texas. They said it was so hot they felt like they were melting. S said, "It felt like we were in a sauna." They had a two hour car ride to camp and said they got chocolate milk and McDonald's for dinner on the way.

 

Once they got there and unpacked they waited for dark and then headed straight for the bell! Peanut got to show S the tradition of painting the bell!  

 

 

Peanut said, "We got there at 9 and saw everybody and then unpacked and went to paint the bell. The inspiration for the bell was a shirt that used to be Boo's that had the verse Matthew 5:16. They did several verses all based on being light."

 

 

"Noni wore her pajamas inside out because she didn't have a paint shirt."  

 

 

"It took over an hour to paint."

 

 

"We read all week." Peanut finished two books and started another one. S finished her book and read one of Peanut's.  

 

 

"Noni took this picture as proof that she was feeding us." Haha. 

 

 

The finished product!  

 

 

I love it!  

 

 

So cute! 

 

 

They got a picture with the whole family on the way to breakfast. This was the first year Mama has gone in many many years! She said she was so happy to be back and see everyone. I wish we all could have gone, but I'm so happy that Peanut and S got to go and experience it together!

 

 

More pictures tomorrow!